YouSaid · the spoken record

Jack Rivkin

lines on the record: 101
first: 2014-11-15
most recent: 2014-11-15
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And once Bear and Lehman were no longer, you lost a huge amount of liquidity that was used to fund corporate America. There's an argument to be made, hey, why are you rolling over 90-day or six month paper to fund five and ten-year obligations? That's a different conversation.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Power to say, hey, who looks the most like bear? That's right. Who's got a lot of fixed income? Who's got a lot of mortgage exposure? And who doesn't have a lot of other bigger departments that could subsidize that if need be?”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In the commercial paper and the mortgage back area that they were at ground zero. You know, it wasn't just people misunderstand. People seem to think that Lehman Brothers fell and then all the dominoes went after it. I'm fond of saying Lehman was the first trailer in the trailer park that the tornado came through. But it was going to take everybody else to go. It was going to take everybody. It wasn't but for if we only saved Lehman everything would have been fine. They were all going down. They were all heavily exposed. They were all heavily leveraged. They all had a huge derivative bet on housing, which went sour. Lehman just, it was such a big focus of their business. In fact, when Bear Stearns wobbled, when Bear Stearns had its problem in March of 2008, Lehman Brothers immediately got hit afterwards because it didn't take a lot of traders, a whole lot of brain.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think by the time we rolled around to 06, 07, because of that last five years, the leverage just ran out of control from 0 worker to 06. And they were, you know, it was across the board, but they were so heavily.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I would tell you that that sort of, you know, when you rule by fear a little bit, and I don't want to say Lehman was ruled by fear, but when you have that reputation of being a tough SOB and no one wants to bring you bad news, you end up surrounded by yes men. So I suspect Lehman could have been saved a year or two before it collapsed, and people saw problems coming, but nobody wanted to, either it wasn't in anybody's interest. If I go and tell Dick this is going to collapse, and in fact, I think the story was some mortgage-backed analyst at Lehman said, hey, we're sitting on all this paper, it's a disaster. We have to deal with this, and ultimately he was fired. If you go back to the story.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right. This is family radio, so I can't use some of those phrases. But he had a reputation of really, you know, bare knuckle, no BS sort of. You don't want to be on the wrong side of him.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Obviously, you gave the thumbs up to if you're a vindictive character, you would have submarined his economics club of New York membership. They had to know that you were not harboring any ill will at that point.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How you exit and exit gracefully really leaves a taste in people's mouths and the past few places I've left, I've actually learned that lesson that I think a lot of people learn much younger than me. But it's always nice when someone says something like that and said.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Really? That's a very nice. I mean, it was pretty clear. Look, you know, not everybody figures that out. It took me till I was, I want to say mid-40s to learn, hey, when you leave, even if you're leaving on your own terms,”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm working on it. So let's talk a little bit about some of the things we didn't get to during the broadcast segment. So Dick Fault. Pretty much fired you. He was in the room. You politely said. But he was known for sitting in the corner and having his henchmen do his bidding. That wasn't, well, I guess if you need me there, I'll be there. But essentially, it was between you and the head of fixed income. And Dick said, we're a fixed income shop. This guy Jack has to go. If it's between the two of you, I'll choose you and he's gone.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Bit more profound, yeah. I learned the patience side of things over time. It took a while to learn that. The keeping your mouth shut, you still don't have that down.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's nothing like that. It's funny because there are always these life lessons to be learned. And if you're fishing, the lesson you learn is patience. Patience. Which certainly doesn't hurt as an investor, and I'm not a naturally patient person, so that was a little bit of struggle learning to have that. But what sort of life lessons did you take from Tulsa, Oklahoma?”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So it's funny because I was never a fly fisherman, but as a kid, we used to spend our summers upstate New York. And back in the day, when there wasn't air conditioning everywhere, I'm old enough to, growing up where there wasn't central air in everybody's house. So he would work during the week and come up Thursday night and spend the whole weekend with us and then go back down. So his three-day weekends over the summer. And same thing. I recall getting up at 4.30, 5 o'clock in the morning, driving to the Liberty Diner for breakfast, and then we're on the lake at 6, 6.30, and it was either Swan Lake or one of his other lakes upstate. And as a kid, that's what you did.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's just incredible, and a lot of the guys who go there actually work with some of the nature conservancy to keep that land absolutely wild and pristine. And there's just, they ain't making any more of it and there's less and less of it all the time. It's really quite amazing. So that's how we met. And you do a lot of fly fishing, don't you? I do.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Isn't so every year Kotak hosts the, it's called the Shadow Federal Reserve fishing trip, or informally known as Camp Kotok. And this is up in the wilds of Maine, and it's just God's country. It's as gorgeous an area. Every time I'm sitting in a canoe on a lake there and you just look around, gee, there's nobody around for miles. You're in the middle of this pristine. People don't even think that sort of stuff is left anymore. That's right.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He's the one go Google. So I Google you, and holy cow, look at this. Wow, this guy has worked everywhere. The Harvard business case study comes up, which is, oh, that's the first time that's ever happened. And Kotok is another one who's a huge fisherman. I put you two guys in touch and we ended up...”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A conversation you and I briefly talked about fishing. I had a conversation. It might have been David Kotak. I said, I met a guy, a very interesting Jack Rifkin, a fisherman. Oh, you met Jack Rivkin.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is Barry Ritholz, and this is our Masters in Business Weekly series where I find some very smart, influential person whose work and ideas have really dramatically influenced the market or society or business over the past few years. And today I'm thrilled to have my friend and fishing buddy, Jack Rivkin, who's now with Altegris. And if you listen to the early part of the show, pretty much couldn't hold a job and just kicked around Wall Street from Lehman to City to Pain Weber to Newberger and Berman. Eventually, somebody was nice and took him in. And, you know, it's really funny, the story I told early on, you know, I just realized exactly John Malden introduced us. That's right. That's how we met. At a dinner that John was in town for. And I remember having...”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Thank you, Jack, for spending so much time with us. We've been speaking with Jack Rivkin, Managing Director at Altegris. Be sure and check out our podcast extras where we continue the conversation. You could see that at bloomberg.com or at iTunes. Check out all of our past conversations or archived at both those locations or follow me on Twitter at Ridholtz. I'm Barry Ridholtz. You're listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, you mentioned 3D printing and healthcare. I saw two fascinating stories on that. One was a group of doctors in Europe that had an inoperable tumor on a relatively young kid, and they were able to take the MRI and CAT scans of this tumor, print it in 3D so they could see how the tumor was interfering with what veins and what arteries and repeated practice surgeries in order to get to it. And eventually they operate on this inoperable tumor and save this boy's life. The other thing which is astonishing that I was just reading about the other day is using 3D printing to print biological output. So they could print part of a kidney or print part of a that's astonishing.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's complicated. It is complicated stuff. And before we run out of time, let's just talk a little bit about what sort of stuff you're seeing on the venture side. Because I know you're still...”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Risk has always been with us, the traditional response is a 60, 40 or 70, 30 portfolio. So you have an anchor of bonds. And when stocks are getting shellacked. Like we've seen earlier this year, the bonds typically go the other way, so it takes a little bit of the sting out of the drop. For the average person, is this the sort of thing that makes sense or are they better off with a traditional asset allocation model? Or who's the intended client for a sophisticated? I think the client.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A lot of varieties out there. So we're going way off into the weeds in terms of a little more complex financial product. Let's talk about how the world has evolved over the course of your career because you started out the world was a whole lot simpler. You were an equity analyst in the late 60s. You were looking at balance sheets. This is really Gram and Dodd fundamental research. And now it's the polar opposite at end of the spectrum of complex hedged products, et cetera. Is it the world has changed so much that that's what drew you there? Or, hey, this looks like something I haven't played in before. Let's have a little fun with this. This is intriguing stuff.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So let's talk a little bit about other stuff you've done in addition to venture capital. There's been a lot of other alternative investments, hedge funds, futures. Let's talk a little bit about that. That's my admirer.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so, what about all the problems of it's a communist country and they're building these ghost cities and all the problems that people have been talking about China for the past couple of years? Is that just something they work through?”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's really tough to make a bet against human ingenuity. There's so many fascinating new technologies coming out all the time. It's hard to keep up with the pace of innovation.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And you also are a principal, and you're a principal at Idea Labs that does very early stage investing. Talk a little bit about what the World of Venture Capital is like.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“CIO, and earlier we were discussing your career. You had run the research department at Smith Barney, and before that, at Lehman Brothers, and then eventually became chief investment officer at Newberger and Berman. Along the way, you were pretty active in the venture capital markets as well. You were head of VC Capital at Payne Weber, is that right? Yes.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio. I'm Barry Ritholz. Today I'm speaking with Jack Rivkin, who is currently head of research and principal at Altegra Associates. Is that correct? Or Chief Investment Manager? You're pretty close.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Coming up, we continue our conversation with Jack Rivkin, discussing the world of venture capital investing, managed futures, and hedge funds.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Management style. These off sites very loosey goosey. By the way, a lot of the stuff you talked about Is pretty standard operating procedure today in a number of management courses and a number of service-oriented industries. But back then.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio. I'm Barry Ritholz. Today we're speaking with Jack Rivkin, who is currently Chief Investment Officer of Altegra's Associates, but he has a very storied background and career. He worked as the head of research at Lehman Brothers, the chief investment officer for Newberger in Berman. You were at Smith Barney. You were at a number of places, a very storied background and incredibly knowledgeable about how things work in the world of finance. Earlier we were talking about how you had taken Lehman Brothers back in the 1980s from the worst research department, a laughing stock on Wall Street, to the number one ranked institutional research department. And for your troubles, you were awarded how?”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's quite fascinating. When we continue our conversation, we'll discuss how Jack actually got fired from Lehman Brothers, despite taking them to the top of the institutional rankings. I'm Barry Ritholz. You're listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so let's talk a little bit about that. How did you end up, what did you do to change the staffing, the culture, and the quality of the work that we were doing?”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Largest investment bank, maybe even a little smaller than that. With a research department that someone called a laughing stock of Wall Street.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So let's step back and talk about this. By the way, you and I first met some years ago, and after we had met, and you're just a very ordinary guy, very humble, like when one meets Jack Rivkin, one does not come away with, wow, that guy has an unbelievable resume. It's just, oh, what a nice guy. And I just happen to mention it to somebody. By the way, I met a guy named Jack Rivkin. Jack Rivkin, do you know who Jack Rifkin is? Yeah, he's this guy. No, no, no. You should go Google Jack Rifkin. So I Google you and up comes the Harvard Business School case study on what you did at Lehman Brothers from, I want to say 1987 to the early 90s. That's right. That's right. So essentially at the time, Lehman Brothers was a fifth or sixth”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm Barry Ritholz. You're listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio. My guest today is Jack Rivkin. He's Chief Investment Officer at Altegris Associates and has a very storied career on Wall Street, worked in very senior positions, head of research, CFO, et cetera, at a number of large firms. But what you really, is it fair to say what you're best known for is the work you did at Lehman Brothers in its heyday? Is that a fair statement?”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Coming up, we continue our conversation with Jack Rifkin, and we discuss how he took the last place research department of Lehman Brothers and made it the best on Wall Street.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No wind at your back. You had five major rallies, five major sell offs. And by the time you were done back in 1982, you were essentially where you started.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So you had a 20 year run from 46 to 66. The Dow, I think, started somewhere in the 200s, just about kissed 1,000 in 1966, a hair under it. And then for the next 16 years, never got back over that level.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's quite fascinating. So you work your way through a number of big firms. You've certainly seen changes since, so you started in the late 60s, which was pretty much the end of the post-war rally.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There you go. That's about as early a stage as it gets. So you've obviously had a very storied career on Wall Street. You've worked in a lot of major firms. What were your early influences? What actually affected your early approach to investing?”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And eventually your tenure there was the subject of a Harvard business school case study describing exactly what goes in taking a last place research firm, turning it to a first place firm, you were CIO chief investment officer at Newberger Berman before that you were director of global research at Smith Barney and currently you're a director at Dale Carnegie Associates and on the Economic Club of New York. Did I miss any of the big?”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Eventually become head of research there, they get bought by Payne Weber and you work your way up the ladder of Paine Weber where you become research director, CFO, CEO of the Equity Trading Side, and eventually president of Pain Weber Capital. Then you move over to Lehman Brothers in 1987. There are some other things in the middle, but I'm just doing the highlights. At Lehman Brothers, you famously took them from worst to first.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Today on the show, I'm thrilled to have my friend Jack Rivkin, a person you may not know who he is, again another inside baseball sort of person who people on the street, certainly know who he is. Let me just give you a little flavor of his resume because it's quite outstanding. You began your career as a research analyst back in 1968 at a small firm called Mitchell Hutchins. Is that correct?”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Really fascinated by finance, technology, and software, as well as biotech. And we briefly talk about printable organs and printable bones and things along those lines. It's the areas that interest him I find quite fascinating. So I thought this conversation was really, really interesting. It's not as much inside baseball as I've threatened for a guy that the average investor may not know who he is. He's been all over the street. He's got just a phenomenal career, a great track record, and just a deep, deep well of knowledge. So it was a pleasure to sit with him and have him share some of that. So I think I've babbled more than enough, probably a minute longer than my usual babbling. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Jack Rifkin.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“and gently egresses himself out of Lehman a second time. This version is voluntary, and it turns out to be quite fortuitous timing because he leaves just before Lehman collapses, I want to say two years before everything hit the fan. And so he ended up really being one of those situations where it was a fantastic firing and did really well for him. Jack is one of these guys who's just really savvy and down to earth. Again, another no-nonsense sort of guy who just tells it like it is. And a man, she's a delight to speak with. He's really a charming fellow. I love the fact that he's 70 or 71 and has zero interest in retiring. He loves what he does. When he was a partner at Ideal Labs, he's still a partner at Ideal Labs.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Got a few years and a few gray hairs on me. We're both fishermen. I ended up introducing Jack to David Kotak because they're just same age, same sort of background, same era. They hit it off swimmingly. Jack is now a regular fixture at the Kotok Shadow Fed event, which is every August up in Maine, where a bunch of fun managers and economists go fishing. Jack really fit in very well, but he's a fascinating guy because he then leaves Lehman Brothers and ends up at Newberger and Berman, where he's CIO and does a phenomenal job there to the point where Lehman Brothers ultimately ends up buying Newberger in Berman. And here's Jack, a guy who was fired after doing a great job, ends up working for the same guys who fired him.”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“three years he took Lehman Brothers research from the worst to the best on Wall Street, who was the number one ranked research department. For his troubles he was subsequently fired by Dick Fold and his inner circles of yes men, as I like to call it. But he was so successful. Jack was so successful in this that the process, the methodologies, what he did became the basis of a Harvard business school case study. For those of you not familiar with Harvard Business School, they teach through a series of case studies. Here's how a manager, here's how a CEO, here's how a company addressed a specific problem and solved it. And so I actually met Jack through a mutual friend. It was at a dinner with the famous art cashian of UBS and John Molden, where I met Jack. And it turned out we had a lot of things in common, even though he's...”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was doing this, it was relatively unheard of. He hired lots of women and minorities. People just didn't do that way back when. He also started tracking how people's research report was used by the street, how often people requested a specific analyst report, how much revenue it generated, how much commission dollars it generated, simple, basic quantitative metrics to evaluate the research product and we take all those things for granted today. He was the first guy who did this. So not only did he do a lot of for then out of the box hiring and outside of the box thinking, he engaged in a lot of off-campus retreats and lots of stuff that were considered touchy-feely back then. And again, fairly common fare today. And over the course of the year,”
2014-11-15 · Masters in Business · Masters in Business: Altegris Group CIO Jack Rivkin (Audio) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source